Over 30,000 on the Ngwato Landboard waiting list

ONALENNA MODIKWA
Staff Writer | Friday December 2, 2011 00:00

The board's secretary, Makgetsi Marata, says the NLB has started repossession of undeveloped plots and it is passing them to other committed developers to address the situation. He points out that undeveloped plots are a challenge that creates unnecessary waiting lists.

'Every month we are repossessing undeveloped residential plots, commercial plots and ranches,' he notes. NLB is the biggest landboard entrusted with management of about 70 percent of the country's land.

Marata says this remains a challenge because the land policy allows people to buy plots from others as it is an open market but for direct allocation the policy demands that an individual is allocated only one plot.

He states that they are still awaiting a policy review to address the issue of buying plots from others. As a result of the loophole in the policy some economically powered members of the public end up buying so many plots from others, he adds.

According to Marata the board does not limit allocation of commercial plots because of the need to grow the country's economy with the hope that such businesses would create employment to locals.

'We however assess the management style of those entities to ascertain that they are really economically viable,' he points out. Amongst the challenges that NLB face, Marata says is speculation whereby people buy land with the hope of making financial gains from a business that might be planned in a particular area and then selling it.According to Marata, there is nothing that currently the board can do about it but to expect the plot to be developed within a period of five years.

He says, in some instances people build very tiny structures and such structures are considered developments. He expresses concern over the limits within the legal frameworks at the landboard's disposal that hinders effective address such situations. He further indicates that in some instances people sell plots to their siblings, which is also not illegal in the current legal framework.  Marata says there is a challenge of harvesting of natural resources like mining of sand and quarries.  However, he says mechanisms to monitor and arrest the situation have since been developed. He further indicates that his office is faced with people who are defaulting on lease payments as people only want to start paying when they develop plots.

Marata says: 'They must understand that once you start enjoying the surface rights in the form of a business or ranch at the exclusion of others, you start paying immediately.'  He says the board is forced to engage the law to recover the money because the same money is needed for other programmes that will benefit other citizens.He points out that NLB has since opened a Standard Chartered Bank account for lease payments to be done anywhere in the country.

Marata also says tourism activities are yet another problem that Ngwato Landboard faces. 'People want to be allocated land for such activities anywhere such that it results in conflicting and competition for land usage,' he says. Allocation of land for tourism activities like lodges outside village boundaries has since been stopped, he adds.

According to Marata, Botswana Tourism has since financed a study to identify suitable sites within the district. 'The study is expected to be ready by June next year, subsequent to which allocation would start.'He says initially land allocation for such tourism activities was done randomly until there was saturation in the Boteti Sub District. 'There were no guidelines which we could use to reject those applications,' he points out.

Marata goes on to say, it had become the norm for people to cite kraals without approval from the board. He said this cultural practice of self-allocation had in the past created conflicts among communities hence the need to have the size of kraals regulated. He says people have to consult their neighbours first. The board does not regulate allocation for kraals, it regulates the size which should be 100 metres by 100 meters, he adds.The other issue is of ranch allocation, Marata points out. He says it remains a topical issue with some potential developers decrying foul play.

Explaining the allocation criteria, Marata says government expects the board to consult with relevant ministries who would be involved in short listing of candidates and give the successful list to them to allocate. 'In this case Ngwato Landboard with Ministry of Agriculture evaluate management plans which are most of the time written by consultants.' The board then requested 60 candidates short listed to interview and individually scored and the aggregate scores determined the successful candidates,' he further explains.  The process is however being audited to come up with a more transparent way of allocation. 'We are even considering opening raffle as a method of allocation though it is not a guarantee that all applicants will be satisfied with it,' he points out. According to Marata, NLB has under its jurisdiction 15 sub land boards which was a move by government to relief the board and enhance service delivery.

Among the sub-landboards in the district are Mahalapye, Letlhakane, Mmadinare, Tonota, Palapye and Boteti, he explains. Despite it working with an overstretched manpower, NLB is known to beat the rest in terms of performance in the country because of its dedicated staff, he adds. Marata also points out that resource constraints hinder the board to perform exceptionally well. Record management is also a major challenge due to shortage of storage of data, as well as shortage of offices and housing, he adds.NLB is rated the highest performing landboard in the country, he points out. 'We are operating with a six year strategic plan from which we derive our annual plans.'

According to him, individual employees then have their own plans after which they are then reviewed to monitor performance. He adds that though there are hiccups in their day to day operations. 'They persevere to reasonable heights of service delivery and always have the welfare of the staff at heart through a dedicated team of board members.' The issue of land remains a major concern in the country as it has become one of the sought after resources. While some have been on the waiting list for over 10 years, some have not even received feedbacks from their respective land board offices for their applications for residential plots. The major challenge is that while the population increases and the demand for land hits the roof, land itself does not expand to satisfy demand.